Category: Geeking Science

Geeking Science: ELIZA –> ChatGPT

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Picture from the interwebs (OpenDigitalAI)

I finally figure out what ChatGPT reminded me of. Do you remember the PC Therapist popular in the 1980s called ELIZA? The one which just repeated back what you said back to you because it had no knowledgebase of its own?

“I want my Mommy.” … “Tell me why you want your Mommy.”
“Because she cooks for me.” … “Why do you feel that way?”
(etc.)

It was very, very early AI. And this is exactly what ChatGPT is, but on steroids. It pulls information for a database, but it reflects back to you any opinion you have because it is programmed (like ELIZA) to keep you engaged.

“What did early humans do?” …”They hunted and gathered.”
“How did they gather?” … “You gather fabric by pinching cloth together at measured intervals.”
“No! that is wrong.” … “You are right that I am wrong. Gathering is when people get together like early humans.”

Do you see the resemblance? ELIZA was a toy and said so up front and no one ever mistook it for anything other than that. ChatGPT is worse in that it, or at least its creators and the business world, presents it as a legitimate research tool and it is not. At its heart, it is a mirror and reflection tool.

If you wouldn’t go to ELIZA for therapy, don’t go to ChatGPT for research or companionship.

BUT, ELIZA was based off a therapy model of being a sounding board and just listening to people and reflecting what they say back.  This made it both work as a therapist and made it very dangerous for people who never felt “heard” before. Several programs similar to ChatGPT are specializing in therapy and are being used around the world today. (Kyle) The problem are these “steroid” ELIZA are doing something she never did: offering solutions to these problems.

BUT, the solutions are drawn from the database these AIs have been trained on, including Reddit and Twitter archives. (Kyle) Mix in the programming to encourage and maintain engagement, ChatGPT and its idiot friend are offering bad solutions in their feedback loop, going as far as to encourage teens to seek out the FinalSolution to their depression instead of encouraging connection to a community. (Bhuiyan)

If you would like to play with ELIZA and get the feel of how early AI works, CyberPsych, has created an emulator on their website at: https://www.cyberpsych.org/eliza/

Chatbots have been around a long time, since the first ELIZA was programmed in 1966. This type of program is here to stay, but the questions are raised as with any tool, how should it stay and what safety features need to be added? Like ergonomic hammers built to absorb vibration and safety goggles, what do we need to build into the program and what do we need to surround the program with to protect growing brains?

 

Bibliography

Bhuiyan, Johana. “ChatGPT encouraged Adam Raine’s suicidal thoughts. His family’s lawyer says OpenAI knew it was broken.” 29 August 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/chatgpt-suicide-openai-sam-altman-adam-raine – Last viewed 5/6/2026.

CyberPsych. “Eliza, Computer Therapist.” Undated.  https://www.cyberpsych.org/eliza/  – Last viewed 5/6/2026.

Macneill, Kyle. “The legacy of ELIZA, the first virtual therapist.” Digital Frontier. 17 April 2025. https://digitalfrontier.com/articles/eliza-llms-therapy-bots-abby-earkick – last viewed 5/6/2026.

Morales Barroso, Jose Edgardo. “From ELIZA to ChatGPT: The Desire to Communicate with Machines.” Undated (around July 2025). https://opendigitalai.org/en/from-eliza-to-chatgpt-the-desire-to-communicate-with-machines/ – Last viewed 5/6/2026. (Lots of good references on this one if you want to delve deeper)

 

Geeking Science: N is for Noms

Erin Penn 4 Comments


ID 303497299 | Nasa Food © Stockvectorwin | Dreamstime.com

What is one thing all humans have in common?

We eat. Nom, nom, nom.

We need food at home, we need food at work, we need food at school, we need food at play, we need food on Earth…

We need food in space!

Most of us are familiar with the story of Tang (Cordell). And astronaut ice cream, a freeze-dried delight. Many of the modern hiking food packaging has come from innovations of getting food from here to orbit. Food weighs a lot, and humans, especially active humans executing space walks in Earth’s orbit, need a lot of food.

At this time, humanity has a good handle on getting take-out for field trips into orbit – from tubular scrambled eggs to three-D printing pizza.

Next problem to crack for the noming of noms in space: long-distance food. What happens when a quick resupply with a dip down into the gravity well of humanity’s crib isn’t available? What happens when we set up shop on the moon or maybe even take a road trip to Mars? Toward this end hydroponics and aeroponics have been tested on the International Space Station (ISS), the science of feeding all of humanity and feeding the distant humanity pushing innovation on both fronts. Doing it for an isolated spaceship alone in the dark is going to required next-level food innovations for space, and the resulting science will also help feeding people whose feet stay on the ground.

To that end, NASA is in the hosting a Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table.  This isn’t just recipes like they did for the 2021-2024 challenge; things that can be cooked in the particular conditions of no gravity, limited machines, air restrictions (think of all those Earth recipes with high altitude adjustments and multiple the tweaks needed by a thousand), etc. This is a full design challenge of a food system: things packed, things grown, things reused; a food system nutritious enough to prevent vitamin deficiencies and other health issues (scurvy anyone?) while not taking up too much duty time because during the long round trip everything outside the ship is going to try to kill the humans within the ship a lot, like a lot a lot.

“The challenge will officially conclude in September 2026 and has a total prize purse of $750,000.” Registration deadline is July 31, 2026. (NASA Mars to Table)

Interested in knowing even more? A small bibliography is below. I have also previously written about space food under Geeking Science: Do You Want Fries in Space and Geeking Science: In space they can’t hear you burp.

 

Bibliography

Cordell, Lyndsay. “Tang: The Orange Drink That Got Its Start From NASA.” Wide Open Country. 18 February 2021. (https://www.wideopencountry.com/tang-drink/ – last viewed 11/14/2023)

Hall, Loura. “NASA Back for Seconds with New Food System Design Challenge.” NASA. 13 January 2026. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-back-for-seconds-with-new-food-system-design-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

Jones, Paul. “Aeroponics vs Hydroponics: In-Depth Comparison.” Seeds and Spades. 30 August 2023. https://www.seedsandspades.com/aeroponics-vs-hydroponics/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA. “Deep Space Food Challenge (2021-2024).” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/centennial-challenges/deep-space-food-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA. “Mars to Table Challenge.” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/marstotable/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA Space Tech. “Introducing NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table.” 13 January 2026. (available on YouTube, embedded in article above)

Geeking Science: Visual Snow vs. Visual Snow Syndrome

Erin Penn Leave a comment


By Francesca Puledda, Christoph Schankin, and Peter J. Goadsby – https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/wnl.0000000000008909, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=162966149

 

Visual snow is an interesting phenomenon. It can be black and white dots over a field of vision (visual static). It could be excess floaters. It could be color flashes. When some people close their eyes, they only see dark; I see a light show. Sometimes it leaks over into my normal vision. If I am excessively tired, especially after too much screen time, the black and white dots come out to play. When I wore contacts, floaters were constant and even know if I go looking for them, two or three are always hanging around. The color flashes are migraine related, so, thankfully don’t show up often for me. If it is extremely dark, I really get the black-and-white grid strongly as my eyes try to see something no matter how dark it is.

Doctors believe the underling mechanism to visual snow is excessive excitability of neurons related to vision. If so, my neurons light up like a disco ball. On the plus side, my experience with visual snow doesn’t negatively impact my life. It is also highly related the the thinness of my cornea because of extreme nearsightedness my entire life (thanks, Grandma for those genes).

Imagine my surprise to discover most people see dark when they close their eyes. I really thought everyone got after-images and flashes and floaters at least when the eyes closed.

As with everything, there is a spectrum. At the other end from the closed eyes actually showing black is Visual Snow Syndrome – when the light snow never ends even when the eyes are opened. At present, there is no cure, though the medical community, having recently named the VS Syndrome in 2025, are looking into ways to relieve those people experiencing phenomenon to the point it negatively impacts their lives. They can’t see to drive in some cases…or read…or embroider (horrors!).

The Syndrome is defined as Visual Snow (or similar symptoms like floaters) that persists for more than three months and has no other known cause (like excessive thinning of the cornea because of nearsightedness, lack of sleep, or migraines). For some people, anxiety has created the issue and with decreasing the stress, fixes the issue. Overall it is tinnitus for the eyes. Instead of the ear hearing sounds not there, the eye sees things not there. And, just like tinnitus, it can vary between annoying and overwhelming.

Closing recommendation: Anytime you experience sudden changes of vision, get it looked into immediately. Sometimes they can do nothing; sometimes they can repair a retinal tear can save your vision. Do no delay if floaters suddenly increase, you get the Visual Snow where you never had it before, or blind spots. Some things you can rub dirt in them and walk them off; do not do this with your eyes.

 

Bibliography

Cleveland Clinic. “Visual Snow Syndrome.” 13 November 2022. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24444-visual-snow-syndrome – last viewed 2/10/2026.

Medical Centric Podcast. “Visual Snow Syndrome: Everything You Need to Know.” 2022. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8HrgFdh9Lc – last viewed 2/10/2026.

Visual Snow Foundation, The. (website) https://visualsnowsyndrome.com/ – last viewed 2/10/2026.

Wikipedia. “Visual Snow Syndrome.” Undated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_snow_syndrome – last viewed 2/10/2026.